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University Of Pikeville To Make Video Games An Official Sport

By: Mike Sullivan
@mikesullivan

The University of Pikeville is a private liberal arts college in Kentucky. The Bears are about to become the second school in America to make video games an official, varsity sport.

This fall, the University will offer at least 20 athletic scholarships to League of Legends gamers.

"LOL" as it's known, is a very popular multiplayer online battle arena video game. Robert Morris University in Chicago was the first school to make League of Legends an official sport.

Pikeville New Media Director Bruce Parsons is very excited to start offering athletic scholarships for eSports. He said, "It's actually becoming a worldwide trend. I think there are going to be a lot of students, both nationwide and international, who are going to look at our university who wouldn't have before."

Parsons went on to talk about how this program will work:

"It will be a regime a lot like athletics. They'll have to have a certain GPA. We'll look at them like student athletes. There will be practice time and video time when they have to study other teams for upcoming competitions."

Maybe the League of Legends acronym "LOL" is appropriate here. I never thought I'd see universities offering athletic scholarships for online video game players.

LOL.

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